St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-11-24
ON ITS LAST LEGS.
The Union Labor Party of Iowa in Bad
Way.
FACTION FIGHTS KILLING IT
The Row Between Gen. Weaver and
Calamity" Weller Always on
Top.
Special 70 The Globe.

lies NUN ES, H.. NV. % uCLC dlC
indications on the surface of Iowa poll
tics that the Union Labor party has
fought its first and last fight. At the
recent election it only polled between
1000 and L., 900 votes, while its advO-
Gates confidently expected a poll Of
10000 or $4,000. The labor party in
iowa is slender thing, and yet it is
split up into factions. From the day of
the Cincinnati convention until the
gathering of the state convention in
MarShalltown in May last a desperate
struggle was carried on for mastery be-
tween Gen. Weaver, present congress
man from the Sixth district, and Cal
aniity" Weller, formerly member of con-
gress from the Fourth district. These
gentleman had been at swords,
points with each other for
couple of years. In their
efforts to establish their ownership of
the Greenback party of the state each
came in sharp contact with the other,
but Weaver finally triumphed. Weller
was defeated for congress in 1884, while
Weaver was elected. While the latter
was busy working the departments of
Washington, getting fat places for his
Greenback friends, Calamity" was
laying the wires for capturing the Or
ganizatiOn in Iowa. When the contest
came Weller was triumphant. He
organized the convention, named the
ticket and secured control of the state
central committee. Weaver sulked
over his defeat. refused to give his adhe-
sion to the action of the convention,
and finally called a convention of the
OLD-TIME GREENBACKERS.
They met, forty or more, adopted
series of resolutions upon the deplora-
BILE state of the country, failed to NOM
mate state ticket, but authorized the
general to call mass convention of the
farmers, if deemed advisable, to place
candidates in the field. This work he
formally postponed until next year. In
many counties of the state the labor
party had no organization. no election
tickets at the polls and consequently no
votes. Its leaders are diSheartened, and
disintegration and dissolution seem in
evitable. Henry S. Wilcox, who was
its candidate for the legislature of Polk
county, has announced his withdrawal
from the Union labor party and the
casting of his lot with the Republicans.
He advises others to join one or the
other of the Old-line parties, selecting
that one which is strongest in their
legislative and congressional districts.
and use every honorable method
to influence that party's action
i'll nominating candidates for con-
gresS and the state legislature. Mr..
Wilcox predicts that Gen. Weaver will
go to the Democratic party. and that his
business partner, eX-COngreSSman Gil
lette. will join the Republicans, where
he belongs. This prediction is prOba-
bly, correct as to Gillette, but hardly as
to Weaver. That willy politician is
nothing if not trader, and next cam
paign will see him out with call for a
convention of farmers or something
else, for the purpose of putting third
ticket in the field upon which to trade
with the Democrats. The Democrats
have sent Weaver to congress for three
terms, and are just beginning to waken
and ask themselves why they have done
it. For all the good he has done them
they claim they might as well have sent
a Republican. Next year will probably
witness the spectacle of straight Dem
ocrat running for congress in the Sixth
district. Weaver will no doubt object,
and want the field TO himslf, but he has
posed as an anti-m0nOpOliSt so long that
he will scarcely be allowed to mOnOpO-
lie all the offices for himself and
friends. What will become of
CALAMITY WELLER
is not so easy to conjecture. He is a
man of many peculiarities and some ex-
cellencieS. He is great talker so far
as the art of speech relates to endur-
ance. He seems never to tire. and, of
course. out of so much said some good
things must come. remember an illus
tratiOn he used in explaining the Oper-
atiOns of the protective tariff when
making his successful canvass for con-
greSs in 1882, which | do not remember
to ever have seen in print. He COM
pared the tariff to gigantic COW with
hind feet resting upon the Atlantic
shore and forward feet upon. say. about
Indiana or Illinois. There she stands"
said he. ''in all her grandeur. But do
YOU notice, farmers of Iowa, that the
people of New England are milking and
milking while you are continuously
feeding and feeding her" This hOmely
illustration went home to the farmers,
and, after campaign in which "Calam-
ity' walked from one end of his district
to the other, meeting the grangerS in
their fields in the daytime and talking
to them in the school houses at night,
he was elected over one of the brightest
and cleaneSt Republicans of the state
by majority of nearly 1000. He will
certainly be heard next year, but neither
a prophet nor the son of a prophet is
justified in haZarding a prediction as to
except that he may be relied upon to
oppose whatever Gen. Weaver advo-
Gates.